Heart to Heart
by Mists
Summary: Set between "Southern Raiders" and "Ember Island Players" Katara apologizes for what she said to Sokka about their mother, which leads the siblings to have a long overdue talk. Deep character exploration of Sokka and Katara. Canon. One Shot. Complete!


**Disclaimer: **I don't own "Avatar the Last Airbender." This story takes place between "The Southern Raiders" and "The Ember Island Players" episodes. Basically, I feel Katara owes Sokka one _hell _of an apology for what she said to him during "The Southern Raiders" episode about their mother. And they have a conversation that I feel has been a long time coming. Not sure if anyone's written a piece like this yet, but hopefully you'll all enjoy it.

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**-Heart to Heart-**

**-By: Mists-**

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"_**Revenge is like a two-headed rat-viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you're being poisoned yourself… It's easy to do nothing, but it's hard to forgive." –Avatar Aang**_

* * *

Sokka watched from next to Appa as Katara released Zuko from their embrace. She then slowly walked toward Sokka's still form. As usual, he said the first thing that popped into his head.

"Hey…"

Katara looked up at her brother sadly.

"Hey."

The two siblings fidgeted nervously, not wanting to look one another in the eye. For Katara, it was because of her shame. She didn't want to see the pain she had caused Sokka, reflected back in his eyes. Sokka on the other hand, didn't wish to let Katara know just how deeply her words had cut him.

So there the two of them stood, at a nervous impasse.

Sokka was the first to break the tension.

"So…" he said as he tightly grasped his left arm, "you doing better now?"

"I… yeah. I guess so…" replied Katara hesitantly as she pulled on a strand of her long hair. She had said some awful things to her brother in her fit of rage. In fact, it was the nastiest thing she had ever said to someone she loved. Of all the things she regretted about this trip, hurting her brother was at the very top of the list.

"Kay…" answered Sokka as he let go of his arm and started to scratch the back of his head. "Well… yeah, anyway, come on. We left Suki, Toph, and Momo to clean up the campsite. Zuko's thought of a place we can hide out for a while. "

And with that, Sokka spun around and started to climb back on Appa.

"Sokka… Sokka, wait…" said Katara as she reached out to grab his arm. "We really need to talk… I-"

"Look," said Sokka coldly as he tried to pull away from her. "Not right now, okay?"

"But, I-" whispered Katara, but before she could say anything else, Zuko and Aang returned. She automatically released Sokka's arm. The second she let go, Sokka scurried up Appa's back faster than Momo after a ripe mango. There'd be no chance of her speaking to him alone now.

Aang launched himself into the air and gracefully landed atop Appa's head. The sky bison let out a happy moan as Zuko climbed on and then helped Katara up. Zuko glanced at Katara and Sokka wondering what was up; they weren't acting like themselves. Normally they would be bickering with each other about something, but it seemed that the Water Tribe siblings were purposely ignoring each other.

"Hey," whispered Zuko after a moment's hesitation, "you sure, you're doing, okay?"

"What?" asked Katara as she was snapped out of her reverie, "Oh, oh yeah. I'm fine, Zuko."

She then glanced over at her brother as he intently watched the last rays of the setting sun glint across the surface of the water.

"Yeah… just fine…" she repeated softly as Aang called out "Yip! Yip!" and they took off into the sky…

* * *

Apparently Zuko's plan was to hide in the very last place his father would look, his own summer home on Ember Island. Sokka had to admit, it was a rather ingenious hiding place. Not only could they enjoy a little sun and surf while they trained, they could also keep tabs on what was happening in the Fire Nation through the resort island's rumor mill.

It took about two days of travel to get to the island, and once there, the group quickly settled down. Sokka spend every single moment he could hanging out with Suki or Toph, because he knew what would happen the second he was alone. He wanted to avoid Katara for as long as possible. Sokka knew what she wanted to talk about, and at the moment, he didn't feel in enough control of his emotions in order to have it.

Sokka and Katara had always been opposites in every single way: Intelligence vs. Intuition, Logic vs. Emotion, Pessimist vs. Optimist… Non-bender vs. Bender… the list went on and on. But Katara often forgot one crucial thing during their fights, that Sokka had feelings, too.

No matter how logical and together Sokka appeared on the outside, he always felt things very deeply; maybe even deeper than Katara did. It was just the way he was, the way he functioned… After their mother died and their father left to fight, Sokka internalized most of what he was really feeling. He used his sarcasm and humor as a shield. Sokka did not wish to burden his little sister with his pain. He was the eldest, and his father had given him the task of protecting her.

And even though they fought from time to time, they still knew deep down how much they loved each other.

In the past, Katara had accused him of being heartless; like when he refused to help that little Fire Nation town built on the river. It wasn't that he didn't want to help them… Contrary to Katara's belief, he didn't _enjoy_ seeing innocent people hurt either! But he had weighed the pros and cons, the risks that would be involved, and the ramifications of those actions before he did them. Sokka always took into account the bigger picture before he acted.

And he always thought… that even though Katara called him heartless, deep down she knew the type of person he really was.

But then, to accuse him of not loving _their __**mother **_enough. Well, her words had hurt him in a way that they never had before…

And to top it all off… part of him wondered if she was right…

He couldn't even remember what his mother looked like. What kind of child forgets what their own mother looks like? Katara seemed to remember… why couldn't he? Maybe she did love her more… and he's become…

But Sokka couldn't finish that thought. He stared down numbly at his clenched hands and quickly closed his eyes in order to try and hold back the tears that threatened to leak from his eyes. He was glad Suki had stepped out of his room to explore the house with the others. At least he had this moment to collect himself…

Unfortunately, a light knock took even that bit of solace away from him.

"Hey… Sokka, can I come in?" lightly asked the voice of his sister as she opened the door.

"_And she calls me rude; you don't ask someone that and barge in anyway,"_ thought Sokka as he roughly wiped his face clean, leapt to his feet, and pretended to be going through the drawers of the dresser next to his bed.

"I'm a little busy putting stuff away, Katara," said Sokka as he searched almost franticly through the drawers. "Can it wait until later?"

Katara stared at her brother's back in confusion as she quietly shut the door behind her.

"Uh… Sokka, we really don't have much of anything to put away. Azula and her airships pretty much destroyed everything we had when we fled the Air temple, remember? " pointed out Katara gently.

Sokka seemed… _off_ to her somehow. Well, at least more off than _usual_. Maybe her words had hurt him more than she had realized…

"_Drat! I forgot about that. Gotta think up another excuse,"_ thought Sokka as his brain worked a mile a minute.

"What? Oh, oh yeah. I mean, I'm looking for stuff we can use! You know better safe than sorry!" he laughed nervously as he rummaged around in the drawer throwing clothes everywhere.

"O…_kay_, well I just… I kind of wanted to apologize for you know… how I was acting before I left…"

"Oh, _that_?" asked Sokka as his voice cracking in betrayal, "You just let your emotions run away with your mouth again. You know me; I don't have a _heart, _like you do. It didn't bother me at all!"

"Sokka…" said Katara sadly.

"_GAHH! Why did I say that? Now she'll never let it go,"_ thought Sokka ruefully as he stopped his frantic search through the drawers. He then reached out and tightly gripped the sides of the dresser, as if he was bracing himself against an incoming wave.

"Look, I get it. You're sorry. You didn't mean it. Now I've got work to do, so just leave me alone…"

"No!" exclaimed Katara, clearly sick of his attitude, "I'm not leaving until you've given me a chance to explain!"

"Explain what, Katara?" snapped Sokka as he whirled around to face her; he had had enough of this.

"Why you flew off the handle and went hunting the man who killed our mother? Or how you nearly let your rage and anger consume you to the point where you started acting like Jet? Do you have any idea how scared I was when you left like that? That in by taking that man's life, I might have lost you to him, too? No, of course you didn't, because _**I didn't love her like you did!**_"

Tears streamed freely down Katara's face as Sokka yelled her own words back at her. She leapt forward and hugged him with all her might. And for the first time in her life, she felt her brother stiffen in her embrace. It nearly broke her heart in two.

"I'm so sorry, Sokka!" she cried into his shoulder, "It just… all came to a head. I didn't mean to say those awful things to you or Aang. You were both right. I just couldn't live with it anymore, knowing that he was still out there and that it was _**my**_ fault she was taken from us."

This statement snapped Sokka right out of his rage. He relaxed in Katara's hold and folded his own arms around her.

"Katara… Wait… what do you mean it was_ your_ fault?"

But, Katara simply shook her head; she couldn't tell Sokka the truth. He'd hate her just as much as she hated herself.

"Katara… Katara, please, tell me what you meant. I think you owe me that much…"

"I… oh, Sokka!" she sobbed and held him tighter, "When I left to check on mom, I saw the man, the one who killed her. He was in our house, she told me to leave and find dad."

"I know, you told dad and I about that long ago. That wasn't your fault Katara… If you had stayed he would have likely killed you, too."

"You don't get it!" Katara exclaimed as she tried to pull away, "It wasn't until years later that I found out… that the reason they had come was to find and kill me."

"_**What?**_ Katara we were just little kids when the raid happened. Why would they have been after you?"

"B-because they wanted the b-bender; I overheard Seron and Handa talking about it one day. They said that when they were captured, the soldiers had asked them about the waterbender. Don't you see? Mom told them _she_ was the bender. When I confronted the man, he even confirmed it. She was trying to protect me!"

"Katara…" said Sokka in a strained whisper, knowing where she was going with this.

"It's my fault she's dead," Katara said with an air of finality. It chilled Sokka to the bone.

"No it isn't! Stop saying that!"

"Yes, it is!" Katara insisted as she once again tried to pull away from her brother, "You had even warned me: _**Stop playing with the magic water, Katara! Keep your weird powers to yourself, Katara! If the Fire Nation finds out you can do that they'll come for you, Katara!**_"

"Stop it!_ Please_, **stop it! **You know I never meant it like that!" cried Sokka in vain as he heard his own childish words being slung back at him.

"Well your freak of a little sister got your mother killed! Are you happy now, Sokka?" yelled Katara right in his face. He couldn't take it anymore, seeing his sister in that much pain; a pain that he was partly to blame for because of a few words of jealously from their youth.

Sokka then held her as close to his chest as he could.

"It's not your fault, Katara. It never was. Mom gave her life to protect you. I… never meant to hurt you like this. I said those things because… because at the time I was jealous! You could do all that cool stuff that I just… couldn't. No matter how hard I tried! I mean, mom, dad, and the whole village saw you as a special treasure… and I… I just wanted to be noticed, too."

Katara simply sniffled into his chest, "But you were right. I wasn't careful enough. They found out about me and mom paid the price."

He had to fix this. No wonder she had gone after that man, it was just like when Sokka had gone to the Boiling Rock to save their father…

…And that gave Sokka an idea.

"Katara," said Sokka as he pulled back so he could look his sister dead in the eye, "Do you blame me for dad getting captured?"

"What?" asked Katara in surprise, "Sokka… what's that got to do with anything?"

"The invasion plan was my idea, my failure. Dad was captured and put in prison because of me. So I ask again: Do you blame me for getting dad captured? "

"Sokka…" sighed Katara as she roughly wiped the tears from her eyes, "I know what you're trying to do, but it's just not the same."

"Why not?" countered Sokka with a self-deprecating grin. "Dad could have very easily been killed in prison, or once they found out he was the leader. Would you have hated me then?"

"Of course not! You weren't the one to kill or capture him! You had no idea that…" what Sokka was trying to say suddenly made sense to Katara. She had just been a little girl. It wasn't her fault that they had wanted her. The only one blaming Katara for her mother's death… was herself. And she needed to finally let the last of her pain go…

She then looked up at the face of her grinning brother with a small, sad smile.

"You know… you don't have to be so cocky about being right, Sokka," she grumbled under her breath as she gave him one last tight squeeze before letting go.

Sokka just laughed and put a brotherly arm around her shoulders.

"True… but I just can't help it sometimes. What can I say? It's a gift," he said as pompously as he could, getting Katara to roll her eyes and laugh.

After taking a moment to compose herself, she finally said, "I… just wanted to say once again how sorry I am for what I said. I know how much you loved mom. You have a big heart, Sokka. And even though you try and hide it a lot, I know it's there."

This made Sokka blush for a second… and then sadly look away, remembering what he had been thinking about before Katara had walked in.

"Yeah…. sure," he whispered.

Katara noticed the immediate change in his demeanor.

"All right, spill," said Katara with an indignant huff. "What's bugging you, now?"

"I… it's nothing, okay? Don't worry about it…" Sokka said hesitantly as he removed his arm from around her shoulders. He then made leave, but Katara grabbed his wrist and forced him to sit down on the edge of the bed.

"Oh no," she said, "You're not getting away from me _that_ easily. I told you about my problem, now it's your turn to spill… Why did what I said, hurt you so much?"

"I… hmm…" sighed Sokka as he fiddled nervously with his hands.

"_It must have something to do with mom,"_ thought Katara as she stared intensely at her brother.

…And then, suddenly, it dawned on her.

"It's because you can't remember what mom looked like, isn't it?" asked Katara as her eyes went wide with understanding.

"How did you- _**No!**_ I can't believe she-" squeaked Sokka in disbelief.

"Toph didn't tell me," admitted Katara with an exasperated sigh, "I was taking a bath under the ledge you guys were sitting on and I overheard your conversation. Sorry… I really didn't mean to."

"_**GAHH!**_ Too much information, Katara. I prefer not to think of you as 'naked' in any capacity, thank you very much!" exclaimed Sokka with a look of pure disgust.

"Oh, grow up!" she snapped while smacking him lightly on the arm. "And you're changing the subject. That's it, isn't it? You feel guilty because you can't remember what mom looks like, right?"

Sokka simply looked away ashamed and whispered, "Right… I mean, what kind of son am I? You remember what she looks like... Right, Katara?"

"Well yes…" said Katara hesitantly, "but I have to admit; it's getting hard even for me to remember some times. It's just been so long…"

"But- see! You _**remember**_… maybe… maybe you were right. Maybe you did love her more than me… and that's why I can't."

"Oh, Sokka! I had no right to ever say such a thing to you! It was a horrible time for both of us; we were such a mess… It could be that you're just blocking out her face because it's too painful to remember what we lost."

"Katara… I know you're trying to help, but there's no reason to try and make up excuses for me."

"I am not! You have such a big heart, Sokka. Even people who have just met you can see it!"

"Yeah? Like who?" he challenged defiantly.

Katara thought for a moment, _"Who would get through to Sokka?"_

And then, the answer flashed brilliantly in her mind.

"Master Piandao," Katara answered with every ounce of confidence she had. "Remember what he said was the first thing he noticed about you? That you had a _'heart as strong as a Lionturtle's and twice as big.' _So are you saying, he was wrong?"

"I… well…" replied Sokka with a blush. He couldn't very well dispute that logic. Master Piandao was one of the greatest men he had ever known. He had doubted the man's judgment once before, when he had agreed to take Sokka on as an apprentice. And he would never doubt his master's word again. If Master Piandao had said it… then it _must_ be true.

"No… I guess not," he finally stated with a small smile. "Thanks, Katara."

"Any time big brother. Now, come on," she said pulling him toward the door. "Let's find the others before they start wondering where we've gone."

"Okay! Okay! You don't have to drag me the whole way! Besides I'm famished, you think Zuko's got any Fire Nation grub around here? I've been dying to try some Fire Flakes, not to mention Fire Gummies!"

"Sokka! If those things are in this house they're going to be ancient! You can't eat them," admonished Katara, but she was happy to see Sokka was back to his old self again.

"You, my dear sister, are acting like I care. Food's food, Katara," Sokka teased back, he too was glad to have his sibling back.

"Fine!" she said with an indignant huff as they walked out the door, "But _**when**_ you get sick from it, I'm not using my powers to heal you! So there!"

"HA! I'll have you know that my stomach is made of iron, just like my will! So I shall have no need for your mystical watery powers! So _double_ there!"

* * *

Five hours and several bags of snack food later… Sokka was quite regretful of this decision and Katara did heal him… _**eventually**_.

After all, what else were siblings for; other than to say, I told you so?

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**-The End-**

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**Author's Notes**: Hehehee! Hope everyone liked it. This was a really fun one to write. _Of Father and Mother_, will be the next one I'm working on and then hopefully I can get back to _Double Edged_. Please remember to read and review!


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